Cesar Padilla
|latest = }} Cesar Padilla, also known as Shrimpy, is a young man who framed Dante Gomez for murder. History Known by the nickname of Shrimpy and believed to be harmless, Cesar lived in the same neighborhood as Dante Gomez and Ana Escobedo. Like Dante, Cesar was in love with Ana and made many romantic overtures towards her. However, Ana was too in love with Dante to even notice Cesar who grew jealous of Ana's relationship with Dante. On the night of June 7, 1997, Cesar shot Ana to death in a park. Cesar visited Ana's house after the murder in tears over her death, but did not confess to his crime. Instead, Cesar planted the murder weapon in Dante's car and came forward as a confidential witness who had seen Dante murder Ana. Though Dante had the alibi of an armed robbery twenty-seven miles away at the time of the murder, he confessed to protect Hector Zamora and was sent to prison for twenty years. As part of Dante's deal, Cesar's name was withheld as the witness against him. For the next seventeen years, Cesar's role in Ana's murder was undiscovered until Dante was released on parole and set out to get the murder investigation reopened. After Ana's brothers Manuel and Carlos beat Dante with a wooden baseball bat, Cesar visited Dante in his grandmother's garage where Dante was living and attacked Dante with an aluminum bat. Cesar beat Dante to death with the bat and planted drug paraphernalia to make Dante's death look like a drug-related murder. During this time, due to Dante's attempts to reopen the murder investigation, Cesar was interviewed again by the LAPD's Major Crimes Division and was able to avoid suspicion in the first interview. However, the police were able to identify Hector Zamora as Dante's accomplice in the liquor store robbery and Hector confirmed that Dante was innocent. When confronted with Dante's innocence and his own lies, a panicked Cesar claimed that he was threatened into lying and refused to give up the names of who threatened him. The police interpreted Manuel and Carlos as the ones who threatened Cesar and killed Ana and confronted them. After realizing that the detectives were talking about Shrimpy, the brothers explained Cesar's obsessive love for Ana and his apparently harmless nature. It was quickly realized that Cesar was the actual killer and had lied to cover up his own crimes. While Cesar was brought in to Major Crimes again, search warrants were served on Cesar's home and car. Cesar's bat was recovered with spots of Dante's blood on the handle. To put pressure on Cesar, Detective Amy Sykes deliberately allowed Hector to see Cesar so that Hector would know that Cesar was at least suspected in Dante's murder. Panicked over facing Hector's wrath, Cesar was confronted with all of the evidence the police had against him. Cesar was left with two options: make a deal where he confessed to both murders and serve his time in a prison far away under a different name or be arrested for the murder of Dante Gomez and face the wrath of Hector Zamora. Cesar ultimately took the deal and insisted that he was not the same person he had been when Cesar murdered Ana. Following Cesar's arrest, Dante was officially exonerated for the murder of Ana Escobedo. Known Victims *Ana Escobedo (shot twice in the chest) *Dante Gomez (beat to death with a baseball bat) Appearances ''Major Crimes'' Season 3 * Category:Characters Category:Major Crimes Category:MC Season 3 Category:Murderers